THE LAKE AT EUSEKÜLL. (JANNSEN.)

Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas   

IN former times there was no lake at Euseküll, for it was carried there from the district of Oiso in Esthonia. One day a great black cloud p. 143 like a sack rolled up from the north, and drew up all the water from the lake of Oiso. Before the cloud ran a black bull bellowing angrily, and above in the cloud flew an old man crying incessantly, “Lake, go to Euseküll!” When the bull came to Euseküll, where the tavern now stands, he dug his horns into the ground, and formed two deep trenches, which any one may still see to the right of the path which leads to the tavern at Kersel.

 Then the cloud rolled on farther, till it reached the district of EuseküIl. All the people were making hay in the meadow, and when they saw the black cloud, they hastened with their work, to bring the hay under cover. Presently the cloud stood above them. First a great knife with a wooden handle fell down, and next all kinds of fish, and then it began to rain heavily.

 The people hurried from the field to take shelter. But one girl who had left her string of beads on a haycock, and wanted to save it, neglected to escape. Suddenly the waves of the lake fell from above, and buried her beneath them. Since that time the lake at Euseküll has been inhabited by a water-nymph, who requires the offering of a human life every year.

p. 144

 There are several other Esthonian tales of lakes moving from one spot to another.